After the leaders of the hardcore guild OnlyFangs from WoW Classic announced the end of the project due to constant DDoS attacks, Blizzard now responds with a surprising announcement.
What has Blizzard announced? In the official forum of World of Warcraft (via blizzard.com), Clay Stone – Associate Production Director for WoW Classic – announces that due to the current regular DDoS attacks on the servers of the MMORPG, they want to adjust the previously pursued hardcore policy.
Previously, dead hardcore characters would not be resurrected if they ended up at the spirit healer due to long lags or connection drops, for example. In that case, you simply had bad luck.
According to Stone, however, DDoS attacks are “deliberate, malicious actions by outsiders,” which justify a developer response. Therefore, it has been decided to resurrect dead hardcore characters at the developers’ discretion in the future if they are lost due to a mass event, such as a DDoS attack.
However, those who become victims of normal lags, disconnects, or bugs still have bad luck. This is made clear by the Associate Production Director at the end of his post.
In WoW Classic Hardcore, it can go to the spirit healer faster than you think:
The best horse in the streaming stable
What is Blizzard responding to? Just yesterday, MeinMMO reported that the well-known streamer guild OnlyFangs announced the end of the project due to regular DDoS attacks and the resulting visits to the spirit healer.
With the constant lags and connection drops, it is simply not possible to successfully navigate through a raid instance like the Bastion of Twilight. Every server hiccup can ruin countless invested gameplay hours for several players.
In the corresponding announcement from Sodapoppin (via Reddit), it is also stated that they would continue if Blizzard can establish a resurrection for the recently deceased characters or a reliable DDoS protection in a timely manner.
Whether the adjustment to the hardcore policy announced by Blizzard will affect characters that have already died retroactively and whether this measure is sufficient to save OnlyFangs is currently unclear.
How does the community react to Blizzard’s response? A large part of the Classic community welcomes the announcement, although there are still concerns.
- Buttetsu writes in the official WoW forum (via blizzard.com): “This is a great decision, victory for Blizzard.”
- RooeeZe writes on Reddit: “This is cool, but I’m sure people will still worry about whether they can raid again in the stream.”
- begonems fears on Reddit: “I’m sure this will seem controversial to some people since Blizzard is paying special attention to streamers, but I think it would be worse to allow DDoS attacks to ruin a fun event like this and do nothing.”
- Tactix12 celebrates on Reddit: “Very good. Don’t let the bad guys win.”
Why is OnlyFangs so important for WoW Classic? The guild of WoW Classic includes or included various well-known streamers and YouTubers like Sodapoppin, as well as Tyler1, Mizkif, PirateSoftware, TimTheTatman, or Jaythebard, who of course mobilize their respective communities. The hardcore factor – when the character lands at the spirit healer, they are gone forever – adds extra spice.
Moreover, the community imposes a number of rules on itself and engages in role-playing with their characters. And there are always great, personal dramas surrounding OnlyFangs – like in a big daily soap. All of this combined led to World of Warcraft becoming extremely popular on Twitch again thanks to OnlyFangs.
